Argus Recorder/Scheduler can't switch cards?

[RedPenguin]

I am currently running the latest Argus TV Recorder 2.2.1 on Win 7 with an HVR-950Q and HDHomeRun DUAL.

Everything records and works fine when my HVR-950Q is operating.

For an unknown reason (I am still attempting to find the cause) my HVR-950Q will be inaccessible where all the lights are on but nothing can access it and it either needs replugged or sometimes the PC needs rebooted.

But what I don't understand is, the list of cards in Recorder were the 950Q, then Tuner 0 and 1 of the DUAL.

I have all the exact same channels mapped to all 3 "cards".

Yet today the Scheduler called for a channel to be recorded, the log of Recorder shows it trying the 950Q about 4 times before realizing it's inaccessible, and then switches to "failed recording".

The logs show it didn't even attempt to use the HDHomeRun.

I thought the one of the points of having multiple tuners was redundancy.

[Hominidae]

...I've also had the same effect on my quad-tuner card today.
Windoze applied an update and after reboot one card reported no signal,
whilst the remaining three cards were still good but were left alone, so the recording was missed

After another reboot, all cards are working again (this is a quad tuner on an internal PCIe slot).

So, I'd alos like to know if this behavour of ARGUS is a bug or a feature

[RedPenguin]

So far I for the most part "solved" my problem.

It turns out it's not too good of an idea to have any of the Hauppauge software on your PC at all except for of course the drivers.

I had the WinTV stuff on from when I just causally viewed/recorded TV but didn't think it would be an issue while using Argus since I wasn't using the software at all.

Yet I was reading on the MediaPortal forum how users with that software have had issues leaving the software installed. For some reason even if you don't touch the software it can randomly lock up the card.

So I took a chance did hcwclear and had Windows install the drivers, then upgraded to latest 2013 Hauppauge drivers. (DO NOT use the Hauppuage drivers to begin with, let Windows install it first, or it will constantly claim the drivers are not signed and the card will not work).

Anyway, after doing this, the card has never failed again, but I still don't rest easy knowing if the card ever does fail, it can break recordings even though, it should just go "oh guess we gotta use the HDHR Dual instead until he fixes it". I mean that's one of the main reasons I got the HDHR, other than sometimes needing to record two separate physical channels, but I assumed it would create redundancy, in that the PC would still have 2 working tuners, as I rarely ever need all 3 at once.

[Hominidae]

..as I employ a totaly different card, I don't think this is related to third party software.
My box runs headless and is dedicated to ARGUSTV...only basic DVB drivers installed, nothing else.
I also do not use mediportal..this is dedicated for recordings only.
It is running for years now whithout major problems.

The card in question showed as available, but reported no signal uppon recording schedule to kick in.
ARGUSTV did not attempt to record on another free card (there were three of them at this time, all capable of doing the job)

As said, this was due to a windoze update pushed from Microsoft,...after a second, manual reboot all was/is well again.